Pensions Knowledge Lawyer

JOB DESCRIPTION

Stephenson Harwood LLP 2025

WHAT WE WILL OFFER

We will offer you a place where you can be yourself and where there are no limits on what you can achieve. With us, you can take ownership of your career and have honest conversations throughout. You would join an ambitious firm with a clear strategy for profitable growth where you can gain early responsibility and early involvement in growing the business. Here you can expect a competitive and fair reward as well as recognition based on all round performance. This forms part of our internal promise to you, The Deal, between the firm and its employees.

YOU CAN EXPECT

• A competitive salary and a host of family friendly policies
• Life assurance, private health and dental care for you and your family
• A range of flexible benefits including gym discount and retail vouchers
• Tech, cycle and electric car schemes
• We support the causes you care about, by giving you one day per year off to volunteer with any charity that you are involved with outside of work.
• A wellbeing strategy that focuses on preventative measures to maintain overall health, and tools and support for when our people experience physical or mental difficulties. The strategy focuses on four pillars: physical, emotional, financial and social aspects.
• Most of our roles are hybrid, meaning that colleagues benefit from working in our office and remotely. We are happy to discuss this and other flexible working arrangements with you as part of the application and interview process.
• We are an equal opportunity organisation, committed to having a diverse workforce. We do not discriminate on the basis of age, sex, race, disability, sexual orientation, culture, or any other protected characteristics. We aim to create a culture where everyone can be themselves and is valued for their strengths and unique perspectives.

JOB TITLE

Knowledge Development Lawyer (KDL)

DEPARTMENT

Pensions

REPORTING TO

Stephen Richards and Estella Bogira, Partners

LOCATION

1 Finsbury Circus, London EC2M 7SH

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TEAM STRUCTURE

By drawing together a large group of specialists each with a wide range of experience, we can develop individual solutions to our clients' pensions issues. We are based in one location so that we can work together to develop solutions to complex problems.

Whilst we are often involved in cutting edge pensions law, we are also known for our practical, commercial and plain advice on the day to day pension issues. We don't over complicate the complicated.

Our pensions team also provides pensions advice to individuals and advice to employers and trustees operating overseas pension arrangements.

Highly ranked in the Legal 500, with a Tier 1 contentious pensions team and Tier 2 advisory team.

We are looking to recruit a Knowledge Development Lawyer on a permanent basis. The candidate should be engaged, have a strong interest in pensions know how and want to be part of a high performing Pensions Advisory Practise with a strong team ethos. Our team of experts have helped trustee boards, employers, charities, institutions, individuals and public bodies with their pensions issues.

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES

• Technical legal expertise - Maintaining your own and the team's cutting edge knowledge of law and practice as it relates to Pensions including keeping the team and other relevant practice groups up to date with legal and market developments through training, organising team meetings, preparing current awareness updates, responding to technical queries and creating guidance notes and precedents; horizon scanning to identify thought leadership opportunities and trends to help the team attract new clients, develop their profile in the international market and suggest innovative ways of delivering services more efficiently to clients; providing direct support on client matters, where appropriate.
• Client facing activities - Working with partners and other fee earners to ensure relevant and appropriate legal developments are communicated to the firm's clients in a coherent, proactive and timely manner through drafting legal updates and briefings and co ordinating client seminars, including carrying out research, preparing slides and materials, and presenting/organising speakers, as appropriate; representing the team in external professional networks/activities.
• Legal training - Identifying relevant topics and training needs for the pension group and designing and presenting sessions (where appropriate), organising speakers (including external speakers where relevant), ensuring that fee earners outside London and in other relevant practice groups can effectively consume the training, overseeing arrangements and monitoring attendance.
• Standard forms/precedents - Developing and maintaining key precedents and clause libraries for the pension group.
• Knowledge management - Working with the teams to implement procedures to capture, develop, store and maintain the groups' know how resources, including precedents/examples of previous advice, and helping to maintain user friendly know how banks in Sherlock (the firm's global knowledge repository) and to populate the groups' know how folders.
• Know how delivery systems - Developing and maintaining the team's intranet pages and social media presence; working with the Legal Information Officers to configure news aggregation tools so the appropriate underlying information sources are tailored for the pension group.
• Collaboration and innovation - Co ordinating with other practice groups to arrange cross departmental training and current awareness to keep the teams updated on relevant developments in other areas; mentoring junior members of the team in establishing and maintaining efficient and profitable working practices, including working with the partners and our Innovation team to monitor developments and implement appropriate changes to the way we deliver client service.
• Collaboration with BD - Working with the Business Development team to provide input on the legal aspects of pitch and other marketing documents.
• Miscellaneous - participating in regular meetings of the firm's global KDLs; being a champion and ambassador for rolling out new know how systems and encouraging use of existing systems by the pension group, including conducting inductions of new joiners.
• Current awareness - Assisting with drafting and formatting current awareness bulletins on Pension topics including specialist sub groups.
• Enquiries - Carrying out legal research on questions raised by fee earners (mainly in London but also overseas) using external electronic research services (Practical Law, Lexis Library, Westlaw, etc.) and our internal resources and presenting the results in a user friendly way. Responding to information retrieval requests using internal and external resources/sources.
• Precedents - Assisting with the maintenance of the standard form precedents and guidance notes in the Pension practice in order to keep them up to date.
• Know how management - Assisting with the development, implementation and support for processes for efficiently gathering and updating know how in Sherlock, the firm's knowledge platform (including setting up know how folders and knowledge trees and gathering know how at team meetings, during floorwalks and through know how contribution schemes).
• Meetings support - Assisting with administration of group know how meetings (including drafting agendas, taking meeting notes and following up action points).
• System testing - Participating in testing of modified and new knowledge delivery systems as a "super user".
• Keeping up to date - Keeping abreast of emerging issues in pensions and becoming familiar with other key pension resources.

ATTRIBUTES / SKILLS REQUIRED

• Demonstrates the Stephenson Harwood values of individuality, commitment, teamwork and straight talking
• Cooperative and collaborative in approach and is able to develop excellent working relationships at all levels and roles
• Commercial awareness and client focused approach
• High professional standards with commitment to quality work product
• Excellent drafting, research and presentation skills.
• Exceptional accuracy and attention to detail
• Understanding of different learning styles
• Resilient with the ability to handle set backs and pressure
• Self motivated, flexible and proactive
• Ability to acquire, consolidate and apply fundamental and up to date knowledge of the law and market practice
• Active participant in self development
• Lateral thinker with initiative to establish, implement and complete projects
• Comfortable with IT
• Highly organised and able to work to deadlines with the ability to manage multiple workstreams and prioritise realistically
• Personality to make an impact in the team, excellent communicator and comfortable with interacting with and presenting to colleagues at all levels

This job description is indicative only and does not represent an exhaustive list of responsibilities. The firm reserves the right to alter or change the responsibilities at any time, in line with the firm's strategy and business needs.